The top reported proficiency rate is 74% in Science. The lowest is 65% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Schleswig Middle School
Schleswig Middle School is a small regular public school in the town of Schleswig, Iowa, serving grades five through eight as part of the Schleswig Comm School District. The student body is almost entirely white, with a small Hispanic minority and an even smaller Asian enrollment. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, giving the school a middle-income, rural profile. The total enrollment is small, which means most students share classes with the same peers across multiple years.
The town of Schleswig is a compact, primarily residential agricultural community with a German heritage that shows in its Main Street building designs and longstanding traditions such as the Schleswig German Band and the annual Calf Show Days. The population is older and has been declining modestly in recent years, with no major new housing or commercial development identified in publicly available sources. The town is car-dependent, with Denison roughly a dozen miles south and Ida Grove a similar distance north. Civic life centers on the city park, the public library, a nine-hole golf course, the volunteer fire department, and the community building run by a local nonprofit. The school gym is open to residents for walking, basketball, and volleyball, so the building functions as a community hub as well as a classroom.
On the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress, or ISASP, the school posted a math proficiency rate that was broadly on par with many middle schools of this size, with a strong share of students meeting the state’s proficient-or-above threshold. The English language arts proficiency rate was somewhat lower, though still a solid majority, while science proficiency was higher than either math or reading. Because the data covers only a single year, there is no trend line yet to show whether performance is improving or slipping. In comparison to other school districts in Crawford County, the school’s overall proficiency index across tested subjects sat in the bottom quartile of the four districts in that county. This is a small cohort, so being at the lower end of this group is worth noting, though the school’s absolute numbers are not weak.
No data was available on chronic absenteeism, discipline, course access, staffing ratios, or special education and English learner populations. A parent who wants a fuller picture on student support and school climate may want to ask the school directly for those details. The district’s publicly reported recent history showed no major referendums, curriculum changes, or property tax shifts of lasting impact, so the school environment appears stable.
For families considering Schleswig Middle School, the primary draw is its small scale. Each grade has a handful of students, which can mean close relationships between teachers and students and a setting where a child is unlikely to get lost. The peer environment is homogeneous, and the community is tight-knit. The housing market in the area is affordable relative to state and national benchmarks, reflecting the slow population decline. A family moving here should expect a quiet, rural lifestyle with limited commercial amenities nearby. The academic results are average to slightly above average in absolute terms, and the school sits within a small county comparison group where it is at the lower end but not by a wide gap. This is a school that fits a family seeking a stable, small-town middle school with decent test outcomes and a setting where the school and town are one and the same.
See more original research from School Decision →